The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1887-09-16
IMPURE ITALIAN WINES.

IMF OnG ! ALLAN WlNEos
An Americans Experiences inNapIes and
Other Cities of Italy.
We have been assured that there is
no liquor problem in lands where wine
is native. We have even been told
that the use of wine is necessity
which we would be forced to recog-
nize when we visited Italy. Truth is
better than ones theories, so we came
with free minds. At the same time
we could not see how change of To-
cation could change the scientific fact
that alcohol is Il poison; or how alco-
holic, and therefore poisonous, wine
could be good for the human system
in its normal state.
May Is we met some gay Amer
leans in Naples who, in warm climate
and with summer advancing, were
drinking not only the wine of
the province but the wine of various
provinces of Italy. and German beer.
One of them assured us that the Ma
pies water was very dangerous. and
that he had not tasted it since his ar
rival. He did not know that Naples
has spent twenty-six million dollars in
the last six years in bringing the purest
mountain water into the city from
springs forty miles distant.
Besides, an old wine-drinker the day
before, while pressing us to take some
wine of the province, assured us that
wine from the other provinces was
badly adulterated. He said: NAPLES
is the most fertile wine district in
Italy. Wine brought in from other
provinces must pay the cost of trans
portation and an import duty, and yet
it is sold at the price of native wine.
How is this possible without large adul-
teration?" We conveyed this CHEEKY in
formation to our gay American friends.
and assured them that they had proba-
bly, taken more poison into their sys-
TENS already than ten years use of
Naples water would have given them.
Two or three days later VIC wentinto
the country i'll company with our wine
drinker from Naples. He carried
along some of the pure native wine he
had pressed us to use few days be-
fore We decided to go to a country
house to eat our lunch, in order that
we might meet the farmers and get a
glimpse of peasant life. The peasants
readily admitted us, and in the socia-
bility of the lunch our friend brought
out his bottle of wine and treated the
peasants. Three or four of them
tasted the wine and passed it on to
others, but not one drank it. We
thought the peasants recognized this
pure wine as very superior and hest
tated to drink much of so costly an
article. But when our friend urged
them to drink the farmer replied:
"Your wine is not pure. Let me bring
you some of my wine" And our
friend admitted that the peasant wine
tasted very different from the pure (O
wine he had urged us only few days
before to drink. The farmer consoled
our wine-drinking friends by assuring
them that the peasants seldom put any
thing more than water into wine
before carrying it to their city
customers. But even on this sup
position, Americans visiting Naples
take a beverage about half of which
comes from some country we'll which
NAV have been receiving impurities
from the house or barn for hundred
years, while the other half contains al
coholic poison, in preference to a
water which chemical analysis shows
to be the purest in Europe! They then
rail at temperance fanatics running
their health for an idea! What won
der that we live to recount the dam
gers through which we have passed!
Yesterday we met another Ameri
can, and the inevitable temperance
topic coming up-even in Italy-this
gentleman said: 81 am an abstainer
at home, put used wines in South
ern Europe from February to the
last of May. This use brought on a
very uncomfortable rash or skin dis
ease, which still torments me. / have
abandoned all wines for the last three
weeks, said he, land hope in due time
to get the poison out of my system"
Do not infer that wine is the only
cause of the rash. A friend, who was
suffering from this disease, called upon
physician in Naples who is a pro-
fessor in the University of Naples, and
a member of the leading scientific So
cieties of Great Britain. He told her
not to use any red wine, and to use the
light white wine only sparingly. She
replied that she used no wine at all.
"Ahp' said he, somewhat surprised, for
he assumed that she used wine; but
Immediately added, with evident salts
faction: $50 much the better" This
answer shows the opinion of one of the
best authorities in Italy upon the neces-
sity of using wine in that country.
1t is only fair to add that while al
most every one drinks wine in Italy,
intoxication is less common than with
us. This is probably due to the weak
ness of the wine used, to the fact that
this weak wine is drank slowl at the
table in connection with food, and to
the lethargic life of the people of
Southern Europe and Asia. But with
the awakening of the new national life
and the increased activity Of the peo-